Keeping Hope
by IHazUsername
Summary: A new person joins the Pen, during the events at Howe's during season two. With his help, they escape without the use of the herd, how will that affect where they go, the people they meet, how do they escape the wrath of the people Carver sends to hunt them down?
1. Chapter 1

**?'s P.O.V**

I heard movement behind me, before I could even turn towards them, I felt a gun placed against the back of my head. I heard a woman's voice speaking slowly to me.

"I'm not here to hurt you, but if you try anything, I won't hesitate, understand?" She spoke calmy, knowing she clearly had the advantage here.

"Yeah, I understand." I responded, with about the same calmness, this wasn't my first time in this situation. I wasn't stupid, I knew not to try and get the upper hand here, it wouldn't work.

"Drop your gear, please." She requested, I did as she asked, letting all my gun and knife fall from my hands. "Thanks." She replied. "Now, turn around." I once again, did as I was told, finally seeing her face. She was an African- American woman, with an Afro.

"So.. who are you?" I asked her, not recognizing her at all.

"I'm asking the questions." She told me, to which I quickly nodded. "Name?"

"Oliver." She nodded.

"Age?" She asked

"Nineteen... how many questions are there?"

"Just a few more." She told me. She was telling the truth there, after a few more questions, she was done. I was then told by her, that she had a group set up, in a hardware store. She seemed like a nice person, so I decided to go and at least see what the place was about. She brought me there, it seemed safe enough

"So, here we are" She said as we entered, I followed closely behind her, examining our surroundings.

There were shelves full of food, that was comforting. All was well. I saw a few guards, the woman who I had figured out was named Tavia, introduced me to some of the guards. I met Wyatt, Eddie, Russell and Hank. They seemed nice as well as Tavia, Tavia told me that I would meet "Carver" tomorrow. She brought me to some place called the pen and she brought me in there, and closed the gate behind me. I stood in the pen, it was a bit cold, but I was only in a Black T-shirt and track pants, so that didn't help. I made my way towards a group of people by the fire, it was evening so it wasn't really dark, but it wasn't light either, once I was close up to them I could see them better. There was A bigger Black guy and his Pregnant wife. Two guys that were probably in their twenties, one wearing a black cap, one with a orange shirt. A young girl wearing a purple and white hat, a Mexican man and his Daughter. A bearded man wearing a hat, and his girlfriend. A few others were sleeping, one girl with short hair, and a black guy with a scar on his face.

"Hey. Come over here!" The bearded guy yelled called out to me.

I nervously made my way over. "Uh, hey there." I responded, having the whole group looking at me.

"What's your name?" The bigger black guy asked, not as loudly as the bearded guy.

"Uh, it's Oliver..." I responded. The group told me all their names, and I tried to remember them all.

According to them, Howe's wasn't as good as Tavia made it seem. I nervously sat down on a chair next to the pregnant woman.

We continued to speak for a while before most of them went to bed. I followed them a while later, I laid in bed for a bit, before falling asleep.

I was awoken the next morning by a guy I didn't recognize.

"Get yer' ass up, Bill needs to speak to ya'.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Enjoy everyone! Thanks to WalkingDeadRox, who helped me get this started, and gave me some tips on writing, thanks man!**

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 _Oliver's P.O.V_

I slowly opened my eyes, to look up at the man with the scruffy beard, and messy hair, wearing a camo jacket, and holding a rifle. I sat up for a second, rubbing my eyes and stretching a bit.

"What time is it?" I asked, yawning afterwards.

"Dun' matter, don't make Bill wait, dumbass. Get up, now." He told me in a gravelly and rough voice. I looked at him for a second, thinking about speaking to the group I had met last night, they spoke about some asshole guard named Troy. This was probably him. "Hey, you deaf or sumthin'?" He growled, grabbing me by the arm and pulled me up.

I ignored him after that, walking over to the rest of the group, who were all stood looking at who I assumed to be Bill. I joined them, standing next to Kenny and Sarita.

"Ah, he finally joins us." Bill spoke about me. "Nice of you to join us, finally. Took you long enough, I've been waiting here nearly ten damn minutes for Troy to get your lazy asses up."

"Bill I-" Troy tried to defend himself.

"Not now Troy." Bill spoke simply, in a deep commanding voice. Troy backed down. "So. Your name? Oliver is it? Tavia told me last night. Mhm. Well, welcome to Howe's hardware. You're safe here. Right now you're in the pen. I know it's not the most comfortable, but like I said, safe."

I kept silent. It was pretty clear to me, Bill liked to be in charge and didn't want to be interrupted.

"I'm sure they didn't tell you, but a lot of the people in this group you're with, tried to leave. Now, I know you're wondering 'why', well I'll tell you why."

I looked around, a wave of nervousness came to me as Bill stood closer to me, I gulped trying not to stare at him, I was about 6'0, he was probably 6'2. So, he may have been slightly taller than me, but, we could still make eye contact pretty easily.

"They ran, because they are absolute, chicken shits. They don't want to accept that this is the way it has to be now. They were running from hard work, like a bunch of idiots. You don't seem like that. Are you like that?" He barked close to me, I stayed still. "I'll take that as a no. You seem better than them. You don't seem like hard work scares you.

I looked around at the group, they just stared on at me, I received a few shrugs as Bill stared at me for another few seconds.

"Nice to meet, you Oliver. I think we'll be good friends, real soon." He put his hand out to shake. I hesitate but put my hand out to shake his back, he grips mine tightly, as I do back. "Since Oliver here was nice enough to not be stupid, unlike most of you, I'll give you a few minutes to get ready for the day, then Tavia will be here to send you off." Bill turned, motioning to Troy as they walked out shutting the gate.

"Well then." I spoke simply turning to the group in front of me. I still knew little about them, besides their names and a few small details.

"Thanks for not pissing off Bill" Said Alvin, walking over to me. "Most new people act scared, for some reason fear pisses off Bill."

"What doesn't piss of that asshole?" I heard a redneck voice ask, clearly the bearded guy Kenny. "Listen kid, don't get all friendly with him alright? I know it may seem tempting, especially if he offers you a better place to stay, but we need to stick together out here. Got it?" He asked, not in an angry tone, but certainly not friendly.

"Yeah, he does seem a bit... uh, creepy I guess you could say." I said, looking outside through the small holes of the gate. "So, what do we do to 'get ready'?" I asked, not seeing anything to take to our jobs.

"Sit on our asses for the time being." The pregnant woman Rebecca told me, sitting in a chair.

I followed most of the group over to the chairs, sitting next to the little girl named Clementine.

"Hey there." I smiled kindly at her. I was a pretty nice guy most of the time, sometimes that can be an advantage. Other times? Not so much.

"Hi." She responded simply, smiling back. "I never got your name."

"Uh, it's Oliver. You're Clementine right?" I asked, getting a nod in response. "Cool, so, how long have you been here?"

"About 2 days, I think." She told me. We continued to talk for a while about Howe's and the type of jobs around.

"So uh, who's your caretaker here?" I asked, trying to avoid anything too personal.

"The whole group here, but it hasn't always been like that." She looked down for a second. She hesitated, but she then told me the story about a man named Lee, and how they joined up with groups, trying to survive, but sadly it didn't work. I felt so bad for her, she was just a young girl, who had her innocence taken from her, and had people she loved taken from her as well. She also told me about Omid and Christa. She mentioned about how Christa could still be out there. I mentally noted that.

"I'm sorry to hear about your losses. Your whole group sounded like amazing people. I'm sure they were. I'll look out for anyone named Christa, if that helps at all." Clementine thanked me for my kind words, and nodded. The rest of the group continued to chat around us.

A minute or so later, the gate opened, revealing Tavia. "Alright! let's go." She commanded. Giving everyone their jobs.

I was assigned to bring up soil to the greenhouse, I did so, about the third time back down the stairs to get another bag of soil, I saw Bill watching me from his office. Creepy guy.

A while later, I was exiting the greenhouse, when a guard who I met earlier that was named Wyatt, had his Walkie Talkie buzz, he grabbed it, I heard Bill's voice.

"Wyatt. Send Oliver to my office. I need to have a word with him."

* * *

 **That's the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed! Don't forget to review! Thanks!**

 **Btw new chapter later today, because I love writing this so much!**

 **Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, story about last chapters A/N. I said I was gonna upload two chapters that day, but I didn't. So, what happened there, was I was stretching, about to write the chapter, when I caught my mouse wire in my hand as I was stretching, knocked the mouse onto the floor, and it fell apart. But, all is good now, enjoy Chapter 3! :)**

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Wyatt raised the Walkie Talkie to his face, speaking through it to Bill.

"Sure thing Bill, I'll send him down real quick." He motioned me to the door. "Bill wants you, dude. It'll be ok, man. I'm sure it's nothin', just be chill alright?"

I rolled my eyes at him, walking to the door, leaving the rooftop, and heading to the door, walking down the flight of stairs to Bill's office, the door was already open, and his was staring out of the window, watching everyone down below, working.

"Ahem, uh, Bill?" I asked, slowly walking into the room.

"Ah, Oliver, take a seat." He told me, I did as I was told, sitting in an uncomfortable chair. "So, I have an idea that could benefit the both of us." I nodded, telling him to go on. "You will still have to stay in the pen, but, I can help you out in there. We can lie about you hurting yourself during work, get you better bedding, get you more food and drink. All that shit. Under one condition."

I raised a brow, wondering what I would have to do.

"You have to find out what their planning in that pen. Get them to involve in their plans. You figure out everything you can, report back to me. So, you think that's fair?"

I stared for a second, unsure how to answer.

"Got an answer Oliver?" Bill asked, staring at me.

"Fine. Bill I..."

 _Lukes P.O.V._

I just finished working for the day, I finally got back to the Pen. I was the first to arrive back. I stretched out, looking around the pen. I sighed, thinking about being back at the Cabin. The group all smiling, enjoying being safe for once. We were gonna leave. Go somewhere safer. Never got to though. Pretty sad.

I stood up, still thinking about the escape, that feeling of relief finding the cabin. All of that. We needed to get out again. We needed to get away, go somewhere safe. We were going to do that.

The gate opened, I turned to see Oliver with his arm placed over Mikes shoulder, Mike supporting him.

"You alright man?" I asked walking over. He seemed like a good guy, but I didn't know him well enough to get really concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I guess, just screwed up my back, probably pulled a muscle. Shit. It hurts." Oliver replied to me.

I watched as 2 guards carried a small bed, that was obviously for Oliver. It was most likely much more comfortable than what we were sleeping on. I grumbled a bit, but understood why. He hurt himself, it was understandable. I wasn't happy about it though.

"So." I said walking over to him, once the bed was set up and the guards left, Mike walked over to be on his own. "How'd you hurt your back?"

"Just, lifted something to heavy, I guess." He spoke lowly, looking up at me. His dark brown hair, combed off to the right side.

"Yeah? You're lucky with that bed though. Seems better than what we have." I spoke, slightly upset about the fact that he had blankets and an actual half-decent bed.

"Yeah, I guess I am." He replied simply.

I walked away, leaving him to his own things.

 _Oliver's P.O.V. (3 hours later)_

The rest of the group seemed pretty pissed at me, for having a better bed. Except for Rebecca. She just seemed, neutral. Probably because of her bed. She had one because she was pregnant, obviously.

I made my way over to them, completely fine, no longer faking my back injury.

"The hell?!" Kenny replied quickly as I walked over to them. "Where the hell has your 'injured back' gone, buddy?" He gritted his teeth.

"Calm down, let me explain." I tried to reason.

"Shut up! I don't wanna hear about you lyin' to get better bedding!" His eyes narrowed at me.

"Kenny! Shut up man!" Nick growled. "Let him speak."

At least someone had my back.

"Listen guys. I know you guys are pissed at me right now. But I promise, I didn't lie without reason."

"What's your reason then?" Mike who rarely spoke, asked calmly.

"Bill, told me, that if I would tell them about your guys' plans, he'd accommodate me better... I sorta' agreed. I won't tell him about your plans. We can take turns with 'my' accomodations. Obviously we'll need to tell Bill something. I have no idea what, because if what I say doesn't come true, he'll know somethings up." I told the group, most of them looked around at each other. I had no idea what they were thinking.

"So, we're pretty much screwed." Nick commented.

"Not necessarily." Sarita said. "Maybe we can... never mind."

"Well, I mean, I was thinkin' earlier. We need to get out of here again. Maybe you can help." Luke said, looking at me.

"How so?"

"Well, you can go do your job tomorrow, you'll probably still be doing the Greenhouse job. Look for an escape route from there. Then, hurry and finish your job. Sometimes Bill let's people walk around, go and speak to guards and stuff if he really likes them. He clearly thinks you'll be a good worker here. So you'll most likely be allowed to look around for a bit. You grab some rope, a few guns, maybe food, find a way to get it back here, we need to escape soon. Before Bill does something drastic."

I nodded. I just got free accommodations though... but, I guess the group was right. I heard a few guards talking about Bill, and things he'd done.

"I'll do my best. Goodnight everyone."

"Night." I only got one response. Luke.

* * *

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this Chapter!**

 **Btw, next chapter, there's gonna be a character that you would assume died in the game returning! (You pretty much saw them die.) But, in my version, they survived. (NOT LEE) Obviously, if you want this to be 100% canon, i'm sorry, but they were one of my favorites, and I was sad when they died, so im reviving them in my story! Hope you enjoyed reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright! New chapter! Enjoy everyone!**

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 _?'s POV_

The pain in my chest was sharp, I gripped it a bit as I slowly sat up, looking around, my mind instantly shot to Clementine, and of course my fiance, Christa. What happened? Everything is a blur. I remember Clem, held at gunpoint, me being shot. But. Who? Where? How long was I out? Long enough, I guess, because my mouth was dry as hell... is hell dry? I dunno. But my stomach, hurt, from hunger.

I looked around, seeing the girl, sat against the wall, the one that shot me. Seems as though Christa was pretty pissed off. That's my girl. I thought about her for a second. Where was she now? Was she alive? …...Where was my cat?

I sighed. Looking around for anything. There was really nothing here to take for supplies.

I turned my head to look in the mirror.

"Damn, bullet wound in me, and I'm still sexy as hell... wait. Holy shit! Bullet hole! What the f-" I spoke to myself. The realization I was bleeding to death, made me re-pass out.

I 'half woke up' a bit later, with two figures above me, I couldn't make out what they were saying.

Well. Time to re-pass out again, I guess.

I actually woke up with time, looking around, I sat up in a chair, looking around, my chest hurt, but was bandaged. A man stood in front of me, and spoke in a kind voice.

"Hey there, friend. Welcome back." He smiled to me. "How's your chest feel?"

"Oh, it, hurts. A lot. Who are you?" I asked him, rubbing where my bullet wound is.

"My name is Sam. Yours, my friend?" He asked kindly.

"It's Omid. Can I ask how the hell you found me?" I asked, rubbing my head

"Well, me and my wife Jana found you in that bathroom, that you got shot in, I assume. She patched you up. I sat there, panicking." He chuckled. "Nice to meet you Omid. Listen, I know you're still healing, so I'll let you rest, get up when you're ready."

What a weirdo. Seems a bit too nice. Meh, I'll sleep. Figure it out after than, I guess. I fell asleep quickly.

A few hours later, I felt well enough to actually get up, I stood up, stretching a bit I smiled, knowing I was still alive.

I walked into the kitchen, seeing Jana and Samuel eating.

"Hello Omid, want some food?" Samuel asked me.

I nodded, thankful that I could finally eat. "Sure, anything to drink though? I'm thirsty as hell.. not that way though." I sat down, eating some of the Bread they had.

"So, Omid. Were you alone?" Jana asked me, as I was in the middle of eating some bread.

I tried to speak to her as I was eating, I coughed a bit, covering my mouth... "Uh, no. I wasn't I was with my fiance, and a girl we were taking care of. I don't know where they are."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I hope you find them." Jana told me sympathetically.

"So do I, I miss them both. Even though I just recently woke up." I responded, to the couple in front of me.

"You'll find them my friend." Samuel comforted me.

"Thanks man." I said to him simply.

"Here take this." Samuel handed me a gun. "Obviously it's not loaded. Safety reasons. If you want to leave we'll obviously give you some."

This guy really likes the word 'obviously'.

"Thanks. I appreciate it. A lot."

We made small talk for a bit longer. Talking about things here and there. They learnt a lot about my cat. A lot about my love for History. I learnt about them. And how much they loved meeting new people. They were so nice. They volunteered at shelters. They did almost anything a good person could do. They were generally good people, which is pretty hard to come by nowadays.

During the meal, we heard the smashing of windows, and the groans of walkers. We knew what that meant.

The walkers entered the house, and the fight began, we had to fight off a few waves of them, Samuel and Jana stuck right next to each other, I was kinda' off on my own. I got caught by two of them, somehow I ran past them only to hear the unmistakable scream of Jana, I knew what that meant.

She was bit.

I turned to face them both, the bite was on the side of her neck, her eyes met Samuel's as tears started to fall from both their eyes. Samuel placed his hand into Jana's as she started to fade.

Her last words were "I.. I love you Samuel."

All Samuel could mutter was "J-Jana.. Jana.. please."

During the mayhem, it was such a sad moment. A moment of pure sadness. I needed to keep fighting. I continued to fight off walkers, until I knew we were surrounded.

Samuel turned around tears in his eyes. "Go.. just go... you have to go. Good luck finding Christa and the girl, my friend."

I didn't want to leave him, but I needed to or I would die. I needed to stay alive for Clem. For Christa. Even for Lee. I promised him.

…

"I'm sorry, Samuel. Goodbye." I said, turning fighting my way through a few walkers before making it to the door, I busted open the door, running outside. And out into the woods. All that filled my thoughts were Jana and Samuel. They were such nice people. They were caring, to me, a total stranger. They didn't deserve that.

I sighed, and walked off into the night, knowing I had to find Christa and Clem.

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 **Well. Omid is baaack! :D Hope you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello everyone! It's been, well… 7 months pretty much, and to anyone who read the story as I posted it, or anyone who found it after I went on hiatus, I apologize! For some reason I lost all muse, but guess what! I'm back, and ready to write, School begins in a month, and I hope to use Writing fanfiction to occupy me all year, so, without further ado, enjoy the long awaited (to me atleast) 5th chapter! Enjoy!**

 _Oliver's P.O.V._

I woke up, maybe… half an hour before I would've been forced up by troy, I stretched and yawned, slowly making my way out of my bed, I walked to where the fire is normally burning, but it extinguished overnight, as it normally does. I grabbed some stale cereal, not even a good brand, it's just some rip off brand. Oh well, take what you can get now. I poured it into a small bowl, sighing a bit. They don't even give us spoons, we have to eat it with our bear hands, like dogs. Dogs don't use their hands though... whatever.

It was about 30 minutes later when a few people started to wake up, I grinned at them, even though I wasn't in the best of moods, I worked with people before the apocalypse, so I knew how to fake being in a good mood, I did it alot, especially when I had to deal with people sort of like Kenny and that Jane girl. Clementine sat down next to me, she was the only one I didn't have to fake kindness to, she reminded me that there are still innocent people out there, and she remained optimistic throughout all of this, which I applaud her for.

 _10 minutes later_

I was on the way to work, I passed Tavia, and faked another smile. She faked her happiness when I met her outside. So, I gave her the same treatment. I did my job for a few hours, before being called by Bill to his office once again. I walked in and was greeted by that evil grin he had.

"So. What do you know?"

"Nothing yet, they haven't exactly come up with a plan yet, just discussing, they definitely want to break out though."

"Yeah. Obviously, I knew that, that's why I'm making you figure out how they're doing it."

"But.. I, Bill, I don't know yet."

"You better, soon. Or you won't be accommodated anymore."

He made me leave the room, and go back to the pen. We needed to get out of here quickly.

I was the first back to the pen, I made myself comfortable and started reading a book I had taken with me, and read it for a while, before Nick made it back to the Pen, it was the first time I was able to talk to him one on one. He told me about his mother, and his uncle. I couldn't relate to him much. I wasn't sure where my family was, but as far as I knew, they were still out there, I hoped.

I still felt bad for him, he's a good guy, he has a temper, but that doesn't make him a bad person. The others soon joined us, and we talked escape plans… they weren't patient… they wanted out.. Tomorrow.

 **A/N: That's the end of this chapter, hope you all enjoyed! Bye!**


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